Macbeth (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 113 minutes
Directed by: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Paddy Considine, Sean Harris, Jack Reynor, Elizabeth Debicki, David Thewlis, Ross Anderson, David Hayman, Maurice Roëves
KRS Releasing Ltd

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth has made the journey from stage to cinema many a time with varying results.

The 1948 version by Orson Welles and the 1971 adaptation by Roman Polanski were all masterpieces. This too can be said for Akira Kurosawa’s reworking in the classic Throne of Blood (1957). Now, Australian director Justin Kurzel delivers a cinematic tour de force in combination with an all-sweeping Michael Fassbender. This is a Macbeth that brims with passion.

Delivered with the aplomb of an Akira Kurosawa movie interlaced with Braveheart and pinches of Game of Thrones this cinematic version of Macbeth digs deep into what makes this play tick.

An intensity that will bring together both elegance, strength and muscular determination that is transcribed on screen

For those not in the know, Macbeth follows the story of Macbeth and the ambitious Lady Macbeth as they rise to power leaving behind them a trail of bodies. King Duncan (David Thewlis) is the one hindering Macbeth’s ascendancy and once in control the level of paranoia takes over.

The direction and the central acting are all based around a perfect synchronicity and melding of a cinematography that simply builds and iconises its subjects. And yet its subjects are both strong and weak, controlled and improvised, artificially calm and terrifying when let loose. The flowing language uttered usually so gracefully on stage is shorn of its scintillating touch and while the flow is kept, it is given a strong and heartfelt brogue to make it very difficult not to feel every nuance and lift with a vehemence.

Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender as the bloody couple at the heart of Macbeth.

Kurzel places the focus of the film on Fassbender who embodies the ambitious Macbeth. Fassbender approaches the role with moments of insecurity that further accentuate the fallibility and dreams of grandeur that his character is filled with.

This is subtly and yet also forcefully balanced by Marion Cottillard’s performance as Lady Macbeth. The French actress’s delivery is to be admired.

She is a vortex of pent-up anger and hatred that is like a tidal wave in its all self-righteous and indignant anger. Hers is a strange performance, one that is strongly calculated, meticulously planned, and Fassbender is left intentionally flawed so as to allow Lady Macbeth the attention she so demands.

On all fronts, Macbeth is a masterpiece. Visually the film is on a different scale as it transcends several peaks with an intensity that will bring together both the elegance of the English language as written by Shakespeare and the strength and muscular determination that is transcribed on screen. No serious film lover should let this adaptation pass without experiencing it.